The invention relates generally to communication methods and apparatus and more specifically to multimodal communication methods and apparatus. An emerging area of technology involving communication units, also known as terminal devices, such as handheld devices, mobile phones, laptops, PDAs, internet appliances, non-mobile devices or other suitable device, is the application of multi-modal interactions for access to information and services. Typically resident on the terminal device is at least one browser, wherein the browser is an application or other mechanism which responds to fetch requests (entered by a user through an interface or from another device or application), receives fetched information, navigates through content servers via internal, e.g. intranet, or external, e.g. internet, connections, and presents information to the user. The browser may be a graphical browser, voice browser, or any other suitable browser as recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art. Such browsers may include but are not limited to J2ME applications, Java applications or any suitable mechanism.
Multi-modal technology allows a user to access information, such as voice, data, video, audio or other information, and services such as email, weather updates, bank transactions, and news through one or more browsers. More specifically, the user may submit an information fetch request in one or more modalities, such as speaking a fetch request into a microphone, and the user may then receive the fetched information in the same mode (i.e., voice) or a second mode, such as viewing the information on a display screen. Within the terminal device, the browser works in a manner similar to a standard web browser or other suitable application resident on a device connected to a network or to other terminal devices.
As such, multimodal communication systems are being proposed that may allow users to utilize one or more input and output interfaces to facilitate communication in a plurality of modalities on a per session basis. For example, a user may wish to use a different modality in different circumstances. For example it may be desirable to input a request via a tactile interface on a communication device, such as a portable or non-portable device such as desktop units, hand held Internet appliances, mobile telephones, PDAs or any other suitable device in the form of text and receive retrieved information in an audio format such as voice. Specifying such input and output modality preferences each time a user is in a communication session can be time consuming and potentially complicated.
Proposed multimodal systems include a system choosing input and output modes for a user so that the output mode of information is predefined by the system. However, where information is output, for example, in an audible mode and a user is in a loud environment, the audible output may not be heard by a user. In other cases, input or output of special information, such as PINs or passwords, may require use of alternative modalities to avoid compromising the information. In addition, the proposed multimodal systems allow a user to choose the input modality but do not typically provide the capability for the user to change an output modality of information once it has already been received by the user. With such systems, when a server delivers desired content, the server or system may choose the mode but the user may wish the output mode to be different from that chosen by the server.
Other proposed systems allow a device to describe the capability of the device to the system so the server can decide how to provide any retrieved information back to the device. As such, a client device may have a preference profile. However, such systems do not typically provide for user control of output modality once an output modality has been selected.
Accordingly, a need exists for a multimodal apparatus and method that facilitates selection of an output modality.